


After The Smoke Clears

by sweetiejelly



Series: After The Smoke Clears [1]
Category: As the World Turns
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angsty Schmoop, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-30
Updated: 2011-12-30
Packaged: 2017-10-28 12:39:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/307963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetiejelly/pseuds/sweetiejelly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Future!fic where Luke and Noah are married. There are two puppies, a Colonel, a fire, a few neighbors and the Snyders. Faith is a photographer and the Colonel may or may not be what he seems.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

  
_Fire licked up the bricks, bold tongues seeking more, more._   


Noah tilted his head back and took it all in. The red brick cottage looked like a bigger version of hobbit habitat. Even the front door, fitted with custom glass pattern of entwined fish, sported a rounded arch. Beside him, he felt Luke lean into his shoulder.

“What do you think?” Luke’s voice was a little breathless, like he was trying to bite back the excitement, let Noah formulate his own opinions. But Luke’s eyes gave him away, like they always did.

Noah leaned back into Luke’s shoulder, snaked an arm warm around Luke’s waist. “If the inside is crawling with maggots then I reserve the right to change my mind but from right here?” His gaze stayed on Luke. “It’s perfect.”

“Well, then let’s go!” Luke dragged him up the stone pathway, laughing as their rings clicked together.

The inside was only crawling with bamboo flooring and crown molding. The inside was filled with light and the light thuds of Luke as he bounced on one foot then the other. Noah kept his mouth shut as he took in the nooks and crannies, the cozy kitchen with its shiny stoves and fridge, the tall ceiling above the living room, and at last, tucked in its sun-facing spot, the master bed and bath with its simple but tasteful tiles. He spun Luke around where Luke was saying their bed could go. “Right here?” Noah pressed in with kisses sparking kisses.

Luke laughed then leaned full into it with hands grabbing for back of head and a leg curving around back of knees. When Noah nibbled along his lower lips, Luke opened further, arched up. Noah’s hands were bracketing Luke’s hips, the lightest pressure that seemed to go through Luke’s bone. They broke apart from the kiss only when Luke’s phone rang. Their faces were flushed and Noah bit down on his lips as Luke answered with a wobbly, “Hi mom.”

“Hi mom,” Noah called from his spot, a palm out in a wave as he smiled shy around the word, the new word. Husband was when his legs began to shake during their ceremony last month. At the reception, Lily added “mom” and Holden “dad.” Noah choked on his champagne, tears rolling sweet into the bubbly. Luke had kissed him then, kissed his tears away.

Later that night, snuggled in their room, Luke had teased him, “Mom telling you to call her mom makes you cry but the big religious looking guy pronounces us husband and husband and you’re ok? What’s with that?” And Noah had to show him, with thorough demonstration no less, why the word husband just made him want to walk further away from the altar, away from the prettily dressed crowd throwing rice at them, away to where there was just the two of them, tuxes flung over the back of chairs and polished shoes turned cheek side up to take in their kisses with glossy black envy.

Noah found his palm under Luke’s shirt. A month hadn’t kept his hands far away off of Luke. And he liked it that way.

“What?” Luke stilled the hand combing idly through Noah’s hair. “Oh, my God.”

Noah lifted an eyebrow, mouthed “what?”

Luke mimed shushing, one long tapered finger light on a bottom lip. It distracted Noah quite enough that he pressed in closer, tangling their legs like twigs for building a fire.

“Of course, mom. I’ll be right there.” Luke was flipping the phone closed and trying to sort out which limbs were his own.

“Luke, what is it?” Noah’s hands stilled with a sick feeling.

“It’s grandmother. The cancer’s back again. I’m-um, I’m going to Memorial to –”

“I’ll go with you.”

“You have to get back to –”

But Noah shushed him with a kiss. “I have to be there for my husband. He kinda needs me right now.” Luke smiled big before letting out the breath he was holding. “Ok. Let’s go.”

\--

  
_Higher and higher the flames leapt. Fire curled its blue tongue tight against the floor, melting air into wood, solid into gas, black, black, suffocating._   


Their first night in their new house was much different from their first night in their first apartment. Two weeks ahead of time, they’d both cleared off all to-dos. They’d both cleared the schedule for muscling the springs of the bed, the taut stretch of each other.

“Right there, oh _God_ , Noah!” Luke bit in deep, gave in more, till he was sure he was going to black out from the intensity of it.

After, they lay pooled together in the center of their bed, sweat and bones, muscles and moans undistinguished. “I really, _really_ love our new cottage,” Luke smiled into the crook of Noah’s neck. And Noah picked up again their ongoing joke about how other people got new houses and they got a new cottage. “… cheese.” Luke only had the energy to scrape his teeth light over Noah’s neck. “Dork.” “Yours.” “You got that right,” Luke rolled them over, spreading Noah open like a personal picnic. “ _All_ mine.”

The weeks following, they made the space truly theirs. Holden built them a media center, solid oak and screened panels. Faith, their faithful photographer at the wedding, framed them their favorite – they both had their eyes closed, foreheads pressed, mid-nuzzle, bliss like a checkmark across their lips. Their college plate sets joined the gift set from Grandmother Lucinda, the ones that said quite simply “love” in cursives. “That’s the true miracle, darling.” And she had kissed them both firm on their cheeks.

It really must have been. Her new husband, Joseph III, doted on her like nobody’s business. Luke got both choked up and slightly nauseated all at the same time just thinking about it. Still, he whipped out Lucinda’s plates for dinner night after night when they weren’t eating out. Love, he thought, yeah he was deep in it, with this cottage, with his Noah, with life.

\--

  
_Soon enough the bricks fell, black charred fragments folding and fading like paper, crashing back into the fire, burnt and burnt again._   


When Noah saw his father again, it was at a most unlikely place. Colonel Mayer was perusing the jelly isle, silently muttering “Eeny meeny miney mo” and tapping the marmalade and the grape.

Noah almost wanted to tell him marmalade. One got terribly sick of grape after years and years of the same spread on bread. Try something new for once, dad, he wanted to say. Then his feet took over, swiveled him right out of aisle five into six. But of course, he shouldn’t have been surprised when his dad with his basket, grape jar now added, turned into aisle six and attempted to smile at him. “Hello, Noah. Aren’t you going to greet your old man?”

Noah sighed and turned to look at this tall shadow, skinnier now from all the years. Holden was dad now. The Colonel was just a matter of DNA. “What are you doing here? When did you get out?” And more questions tumbled out almost of their own accord. “Were you stalking me? When are you going to try something else?” He gestured to the grape sitting straight in the Colonel’s basket. “I hate grape.”

To Noah’s surprise, the Colonel just smiled, transitioned into a chuckle. Noah frowned at his former obstacle to everything good. The Colonel seemed mellowed out. Perhaps on some substance. Perhaps a tranquilizer dart. Or perhaps this was some new tactic. It was certainly freaking Noah out.

“You never told me, Noah. I assumed you liked it just like I do. I get set in my ways, you know.” The Colonel stepped to the side to let a loaded shopping cart by.

Noah shifted his basket from one hand to the other. He didn’t need the Colonel explaining himself. Set in his ways. Yeah, no kidding. Noah tried to stay calm, not break out in sweat.

But the Colonel was already leaving, a firm pat on his back. “It was nice seeing you.” He was half way down the aisle of cans of vegetables and fruits before he turned his head of white, called back, “Nice house!”

Hell with staying calm. Noah broke out in sweat, gritted his teeth. Damned if the Colonel wasn’t stalking him. But why? What was he going to do? Noah didn’t even want to think about it. He had to call Luke.

Barks greeted him and Noah frowned at his phone, rechecked the number. “Hello? Luke?”

“Damn it!” Luke swallowed on a laugh. “This was supposed to be a surprise. Surprise!” The barks in the background added their own joyful punctuations.

“A dog?” Noah’s heart sped up. He only mentioned how cute their neighbor Christine’s Pomeranian was not two days ago. He didn’t even think Luke was still awake when he told him. _”I never got to have one growing up.”_

“Maybe _two_?”

There were definitely two – wiggly, wet, white and brown puppies on the front steps as Noah pulled up. One broke free as he stepped out of the car. It ran frenzied circles around Noah until he laughed, scooping it up mid-run. The fur was softer than it looked. The tongue was wetter than he thought possible. Noah looked on bewildered, his heart splintering into smiles.

“Hi baby,” Luke held the other squirming fur ball as he leaned up to kiss his husband wetly too. “You like Lady? She’s wild, isn’t she?” Luke ran two long fingers along the top of the bliss face in Noah’s arms. “Yes you are,” Luke cooed at her. She didn’t seem to mind, bumping up into his hand like she owned it. Noah had to snort. If they ever had babies, he was going to spend the rest of his life just watching Luke with them.

“What’s her name?” Noah pointed his chin at the pup in Luke’s arms.

“His name,” Luke corrected him. “Is Tramp. Duh!”

“Right, of course.” Noah bent and scratched Tramp. “I’m sorry, buddy. Blame your other daddy for your name.”

They were still a giggly pile when Luke remembered. “Hey, you said you had a surprise too. What was it? You got spaghetti and meatball because we had some mind meld thing?” Luke tapped his head and giggled at his own joke. But when he looked up, his smile faded fast. “What’s wrong?”

“Let’s go inside,” Noah ushered them. He made sure Luke was sitting down when he let out the news. “I just saw my…dad, biological. He was shopping.”

“Oh,” Luke frowned. The Colonel hadn’t popped up in a long time. “I didn’t know he was out already.”

“I didn’t either!” Noah narrowed his eyes. “And what was really weird – besides the fact that he was shopping at all – was that he was all mellowed out. _Smiling_ ,” Noah specified.

Luke frowned deeper. “That’s creepy.”

“No, that was unsettling. What was creepy was he said, ‘Nice house.’” Noah held Luke closer to him. “I don’t know what he wants but I want you to be very careful since you’re here more.”

“Well, I work from home,” Luke looked over at his desk where his laptop opened with his current manuscript.

“Please remember to set the alarm anyway, ok?” Noah kissed Luke’s temple.

Luke patted Noah’s thigh, a smile suffused through his face. Noah worried so much. “I will. And anyway, now we have guard dogs.”

Just then Lady jumped belly first on Tramp, surprising him from his nap. They both looked startled, ears tilted back as they stared at each other. Then Lady ran into the kitchen at full speed. Tramp got up shakily on his legs and let out a full puppy yawn.

“Give them a few years,” Luke shrugged as he leaned to scoop up Tramp. Silently Noah thought they didn’t have a few years. The Colonel could be right outside at this moment.

Noah was almost right. What they found when they went back out to the truck to bring in the groceries was a note. Noah could recognize that strong script anywhere. “He was here,” Noah heard the shake in his voice, felt the warmth of Luke’s hand on his arm.

“Let’s see what he wants.” Luke took the envelope and opened it, unveiling a card with puppies on the front. “Noah - you know my position on owning pets. Dot dot dot. But congratulations on your new puppies.” Luke stared at the card and then back at Noah. “You’re right. This is really weird.”

When Noah said nothing, Luke cradled his face. “Hey,” he tilted up to kiss those brooding lips. “At least it’s not a bomb threat. It’s just a card, Noah. Don’t let it get to you.”

For Luke’s sake, Noah nodded, tried to smile. “Ok.”

They gravitated in that newly married way, though it had been two years now, and entwined arms in arms and lips on lips. Luke was just getting to the point of pushing Noah flush against the truck when they heard a squeal of tires from their new neighbor’s driveway. This new household was evasive as crop circle makers. Their window blinds were always drawn. They were never home. Even their car’s windows were tinted. Luke and Noah joked that they lived next to the FBI. Luke waved to the FBI car now, a smile on his face as he leaned into Noah.

Two weeks later, Luke chanced to see the new neighbors for the first time when he was walking Lady and Tramp in their front garden. Lady was terrorizing Lily’s row of tulips. Tramp was pawing the base of their oak tree. Luke glanced away from them for a moment and saw two tall lean forms, both blond, slipping into the FBI car. He didn’t think much of it, waved absentmindedly at the couple before turning back to rescue two third of a tulip from Lady’s teeth. “Bad girl!” Luke gently scolded as she turned her wide misty eyes on him, full of puppy woe.

Two weeks after that, when Tramp began teething as well, making himself into a new and improved shoe shredder, Luke received an unexpected visitor.

He had been typing away furiously at the laptop since that morning when a scene came to him clear like lake. Midway through the scene, Lady and Tramp wanted out for their walk. When Luke brought them back in, he didn’t even think about setting the alarm. He still had the scene to write, its contents beckoning like Christmas lights.

So when a light creak sounded at the door, followed by Lady yelping and then yelping even louder, Luke shot up in his seat, his spine frozen from fear. When he turned his head and saw the Colonel come in carrying Lady, Luke’s jaws clamped tight.


	2. Chapter 2

“Put. Her. Down!” Luke stared at the man in front of him, this whittled away version of the Colonel. The years haven’t wiped away the crimes, however, and Luke stared at this man now with growing suspicion even as the Colonel scratched Lady’s belly with soft nails, prompting her to lick his hands in that manic way she had.

“She’s a beaut, Luke.” The Colonel bent slowly and let her down on the wood floor where she promptly ran back to Luke and turned a half circle, hiding behind his pant legs, panting and wild eyed.

“What are you doing here?” Luke caught Tramp in his peripheral vision, snoring softly by the kitchen door. He breathed a little bit easier as he continued staring the Colonel down.

“Visiting,” the Colonel replied cordially, trying on a smile. “I knocked but no one answered except your girl there. And well, the door was cracked open so I thought I’d come in and say hello.”

Luke picked up Lady now as she let out little barks. “Come on, let’s cut the crap. Why are you really here? You’ve been stalking Noah. If you’ve paid any attention at all, you’d know he’s not here right now. He’s at the studio. So I’ll ask you one more time before I call the police. Why are you really here?”

The Colonel grimaced a little. For the first time Luke noticed the resemblance between Noah and his father. They both had this way of pursing their lips together when they were about to say something hard. For Noah it was things like, “Luke, will you marry me?” For the Colonel it was apparently: “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?” Luke parroted the word dumbly back at him. It didn’t register as real. If Lady wasn’t barking her little head off, he would have thought this was some twisted dream.

“I know you have every reason not to believe a word I say.” The Colonel continued. “And the truth is I’m not entirely comfortable with you and my son.”

“Not entirely comfortable? You _shot_ me.”

“I – that was wrong. It was wrong of me to shoot Charlene too.”

Luke didn’t know what to say to that. “Maybe you should be telling Noah this.”

“I will. I just – I wanted to apologize to you first. They made me see a shrink, put me through anger management. They also got me into this program with horses where we had to muck out their stalls and brush them and the whole nine yards. Well, you grew up on a farm. You know what I mean about the chores and the animals. Bastards make you fall in love with them. Anyway, I’m sick, Luke.” The Colonel gestured to himself, how his clothes were hanging off of his frame like they were a size too big.

“Sick?” Luke was beginning to think he was the one sick, feverish to the point of having such a vivid hallucination.

“My kidneys are giving out. I’m on dialysis. Doc put me on the transplant list. It’s one freaking long list. He wanted me to check with all relatives to see if anyone’s a match.”

Luke took in a long breath and waited for the Colonel to continue.

“I told him no way. I had no one. So I figured I don’t have long. I might as well try to make up with Noah. With you,” he added after a long pause. “You make my boy happy. You got him dogs. He always wanted dogs.”

“Yeah. He liked our neighbor’s poms.” Luke didn’t know what else to say.

“They’re not much of a guard dog but this one’s a spitfire.” The Colonel petted Lady one more time and she reveled in the attention.

“I forgive you,” Luke said carefully as he watched Lady’s bobs of head. “For what you did to _me_. I can’t forgive you for what you did to Noah. He has to decide that for himself. It might work better if you stop stalking us though. You know, if you called first or knocked?”

After the Colonel left, Luke let out a big sigh of relief. This time when he shut the door, Luke remembered to set the alarm as well, just in case. With his whole system buzzing, Luke got back to his story, more angles appearing to him now, and typed till his hands gave out.

When Noah came home, Luke debated the best moment to break the news. Not at the hello kiss. Not when Noah picked up Tramp and Lady and played tug of war with them. Certainly not when Noah grinned over a perfect take at the studio, over how he finally coaxed the right emotion out of his lead. “I thought about what you said all those years ago at WOAK. Remember our little film project with Maddie?” And Noah walked over to plant a lingering kiss on Luke. “I’m so glad you stuck with me, even when I was hiding.”

“You stuck by me too.” Luke grinned into the second kiss. _Even when I was paralyzed,_ he thought. But Luke held his tongue. That wouldn’t have been the best segue into the conversation he wanted to have with Noah about the Colonel.

Finally when he was passing the salad, Luke couldn’t stand it any longer, couldn’t hold in the words rushing over and over through his head. He brought it up, casually as he might have relayed that Tramp ate the strap of the black flip flop (which he did two days ago). “Colonel Mayer came by today.” Noah got very still. Luke was still babbling on about what the Colonel said when Noah got up from the dinner table and reached for the phone.

“What are you doing?” Luke put down his fork.

“What you should have done. I’m calling the police.” Noah’s mouth flattened to a line. It was his Don’t-Try-Arguing-With-Me face and Luke sighed.

“He’s sick, Noah.”

But Noah was already turning away, arms crossed over his chest. “Hi, I’d like to report a break-in at my house.”

\---

The next time Noah dialed 9-1-1, his hands were trembling from the heat. Luke had passed out from the smoke, soot like Halloween makeup smeared across his face. Lady and Tramp were trembling against Noah’s feet, their little barks lost in the swallow of the fire.

“Wake up, Luke. Wake up,” Noah crouched and touched, willing his nearness to trigger a response. Any response.

Off in the distance, wailing and lights spun closer and closer, till they were all but at Noah’s feet, dragging him away. A firefighter began heart-lung resuscitation on Luke. Another wrapped up Lady and Tramp, wiping them down. Another tried to convince Noah he needed to breathe more than he needed to keep his eyes glued to Luke. “I can’t – I can’t leave! I left the house just a minute to mow the grass! The grass! I left –”

“Mr. Mayer. Did you go back into the house?”

“I had to! Luke was still inside! He likes to sleep in on the weekends. Oh God. It was so hot. It was like that pan bottom that once when Luke forgot to turn off the stove. And then it was black. All that smoke. I couldn’t see.” And Noah began hiccupping his words. “I yelled but I didn’t hear Luke respond. And I had to get Lady and Tramp. And oh my God. Are they going to be ok?”

“Mr. Mayer, please come with us.”

“Luke. I have to stay with Luke!”

“Okay. Just breathe, sir. You’ll both ride with us in the ambulance.”

Somewhere around there Noah’s memories blacked out. He remembered the house, a giant ball of fire curling black into the sky. He remembered clutching Luke's hands. He remembered the smoke like scarves wounding around their necks. He remembered too little. Nothing about which neighbors were out, which cars were out there and which ones were not.

When Lily bent over him in the waiting room, hands soothing, lips trembling at his forehead, Noah finally looked up from his daze. “Mom,” his voice cracked as he hugged her tight. “I’m so sorry.”

Holden’s hands were there, patting and soothing. “He’s going to be ok.” The blue eyes were there like sky, like prayer, like promise. Noah nodded, sorry still leaping at his stomach. He couldn’t remember if he had left the stove on or not. Could the fire have started from coffee brewing? But how was the fire so fierce so quick? Nothing made sense. Noah held tighter to Lily, Holden. Mom, dad.

“Oh my God,” Noah’s head snapped up. “My da-the Colonel – he knows where we live. He-he was there!”

A look passed between Lily and Holden. Holden, when he spoke, was even-voiced, calm. “Noah, you already reported him to the Oakdale PD two weeks ago. They put a guy out on surveillance at his property. I’m sure if,” and here Holden shook his head, his voice a little unsteady. Lily reached up on his arm and he gripped her hand back. “ _If_ this was his doing, I’m sure the cops can place him at the house.”

Noah nodded then, tried to breathe. Lady and Tramp were checked out at the vet and being held overnight for observation, just in case. Luke had been wheeled into surgery an hour ago. Noah dug his fingernails deep into his palms.

What was it Luke was telling him just yesterday? That he came here to the hospital to check up on the Colonel’s dialysis? The lump in Noah’s throat grew like coal, cold and dark, a sharp contrast to the heat in Luke’s eyes as Noah kissed him for his goodness of heart, loved him for his love.

By the third hour, Noah was sick of shoes, sick of the tidy square of the waiting area. He was sick of the voices over the intercom, calm and monotonic. Faith sat next to him, her hands warm on his back now and then. Natalie was away at Yale but called to tell him it was all going to be ok. Ethan too, a serious frown affixed to his forehead, sat across from him, hunched like he held all the weight of the world on his shoulders. He was a teenager after all.

Faith breathed out impatiently as she uncrossed and re-crossed her legs, slouched back against some of the hardest chairs ever invented. Just for something to occupy her hands, she got out her smart phone and flipped through some recent shots that she took. She tilted her head this way and that as she analyzed picture after picture. Her hands and neck stilled at one particular photo. She pressed zoom over and over. “Noah!”

Noah looked over at her, face still gray from the morning’s burn, and raised an eyebrow.

“Who are those people? And why the hell are they staring at you and Luke like that?”

“Faith! Language!” Lily slid her eyes not so subtly to the family with children seated behind them.

Faith sighed, “Sorry.” Ethan snickered.

“Oh,” Noah waved a dismissive hand. “That’s just Christine and…I don’t know. A friend? She was probably just walking her dog Harley.” He looked at the picture again. Luke had his arms around him, a grin wide as he kissed Noah on the cheek. Lady was licking Noah’s other cheek and Tramp was staring surprised into the camera. Their house, charming and domed, sat pristine in the background. Noah looked at Christine again and at the man walking beside her. “Christine’s ok. She brought us a bottle of wine when we moved in. She-she didn’t know Luke couldn’t drink. And we just loaned her our ladder last week.”

“Oh,” Faith sounded a little disappointed. “I thought –well, he looked kinda homophobic.”

Noah shook his head. He knew what homophobic really looked like.

More hours passed by, passed like a snail-shoed train. Finally, Luke was out of surgery. He was resting but Noah could go see him. “He looks worse than he is,” the nurse tried to warn him. Noah still gasped when he saw the bandages – layers and layers of it wrapping up his husband like a mummy. “There were splinters from the beam crumbling down,” the doctor’s voice came back to him. “A few stuck through his skull but we were able to remove it without damaging his nerves. He was very lucky.” Noah thought the word lucky was unfit but he didn’t say anything.

Right now he curled Luke’s fingers in his gently. “Hi Luke. The doctor said you’re going to be ok. Lady and Tramp are checked out. They’re sleeping it off and will be as good as new. And the house – well, the house is not so…lucky.” Noah circled his thumb around Luke’s – something Luke did all the time when they were dating. It calmed Noah and turned him on at the same time. The circular touches felt like little blessings. “But we’ll be ok. As long as you’re ok. You’ll be ok, Luke.” Noah kissed the lax fingers in his hand. “I love you so much.”

An hour later Luke came to, thirsty and disoriented. “Fire…Lady, Tramp…” Noah handed him water and kissed him, called the vet so Luke could hear for himself the puppies were ok. “There goes meeting my deadline,” Luke tried to joke as Noah told him about the house, how nothing much remained except a very charred shell, at least according to Faith.

Another hour passed quickly as Snyder after Snyder looked in after Luke, to kiss him (Lily and Holden), to rib him (Ethan and Jack) and to bring him unauthorized food (Faith and Emma). Then it was just Luke and Noah again and they sat in the quiet of the room, eyes closed, hand clasped in hand.

The lightest tap at the door, when it came, startled Noah to his feet. “Christine!”

She pushed forward a bouquet of flower arrangements, baby’s breath, lilies and daisies. “I’m so sorry, you guys.” She hugged Noah hard and then walked lightly over to where Luke lay. “Oh my gosh, Luke.” A hand pressed shakily to her lips.

Another tap came at the door then. Noah walked over to open the door. The sight there made him clench his jaws down tight. “What are _you_ doing there?”

The Colonel held up both hands. “I heard about the fire.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Heard about or started?” Noah shielded the view of Luke with his frame. Damned if he was going to put Luke in the path of harm yet again.

The Colonel looked old and small there in the harsh light of the hospital, its white walls casting a pall over his features. “Noah,” he breathed out. “Even if you don’t believe I’ve changed – and I don’t fault you for that, son – you know this is not my style. Arson is the wimp’s way. You know what a good shot I am.” Noah thought back to all those Saturdays out on the range. “Believe me, I turned on the five o’clock news and heard about it. And I’m sorry the house is gone. Did Lady get out ok? They said Luke was in stable condition.”

“Tramp’s ok too,” Noah frowned. “They’re – they’re at the vet’s.”

“ _Tramp_? Oh, from _Lady and the Tramp_!” The Colonel smiled a little. “You’ve always loved movies, like your mother. You’re pretty good at making them too.”

Noah looked up in surprise. He didn’t think his only finished film so far – a coming out story and a love story based loosely on his and Luke’s history – was something his father would ever watch, much less appreciate. “You watched that?”

“Some parts were…very uncomfortable for me but yes, I did. You can tell a story.” The Colonel looked at him with something like pride.

Noah didn’t know what to make of it. “Well, Luke – Luke wrote the script.”

“I know. We had a chat.” The Colonel indicated the room. “Is he ok?”

Noah stepped back a little bit, opening the door. He looked back at Luke, speaking in low tones with Christine.

“Oh!” Christine looked up when she saw the Colonel stepping into the room. “Sorry, I’ll go.” But Luke held her hand in his. “Christine!” They communicated something with eyes, hers unsure, his fierce.

“Luke, what is it?” Noah was at his side in two strides. But Luke just kept looking at Christine, willing her to speak. Noah knew what it was like being at the receiving end of that look and he didn’t envy Christine one bit. “Christine?”

“Can you close the door?” She shifted in place as the Colonel pushed the door closed. “Um – who’s…?” She indicated the Colonel.

Noah looked over at his father. “Colonel Mayer – my…father. This is Christine – our neighbor.”

“Oh, hi,” she looked appropriately surprised. Noah had mentioned something about not being in touch with his father any longer.

“Hello,” the Colonel was nothing if not polite even as he studied her and looked over at Luke, whose stare was unfailing and almost as good as his own.

“Well, I-um, I was telling Luke that I am so sorry about your house. Earlier today, I ran into the Wilkinson’s. You know the couple on your other side with that cool black car? All tinted and everything? Well, Will was telling me some very disturbing things.” She looked over at Luke and he nodded, pressed down on her hand. “I think they deliberately set your house on fire. They had borrowed your ladder – the one you loaned me – and I saw it propped up under the second floor window. I think they set the fire at several points throughout the house, propped up the windows so the air would flow through and encourage the fire. That’s what I’d heard the firemen say anyway. And Will smiled when he looked at your place. And he said something like good riddance.” She pressed a hand to her lips again. “God, I’m so sorry. I should have never loaned them your ladder.”

“Christine,” Luke shook her hand lightly. “Ladder or no ladder, they would have done it anyway.”

“Have you gone to the police?” Noah frowned. He knew he never trusted the super secret FBI neighbors. Now he knew why.

“Not yet. I was – I was afraid.” She looked down and dug in her purse. “I’ve talked to them before but I never knew they could...” She trailed off as she shook her head. “I do have proof though. I was walking Harley and trying to work on my shopping list when I bumped into them. And I’d been distracted because Harley was excited by that golden retriever from up the street. So I didn’t turn the recording off on my mp3 player when I stopped to talk to them.” She held up a little square of black electronic. “It’s all on here. The whole conversation and my shopping list too.”

The Colonel spoke up then. “William Wilkinson?” He addressed Christine.

“Yeah.”

“Tall, blond, very pale blue eyes, scar down the right arm?”

Christine nodded.

Luke and Noah exchanged a look, Noah reaching out to hold Luke’s hands in his. “You know him?” Noah’s voice sounded blank.

The Colonel ran a hand over his head of hair. “Almost a year ago,” he conceded. “When I first started… _following_ you, Noah. It was before my diagnosis… _before_. I guess he saw how I was looking at you two.” He gestured vaguely. “You were all over each other on the driveway.” He looked away uncomfortably as Luke shifted in the hospital bed blushing. “I paid them to keep an eye on you. I _never_ told them to do anything _to_ you. You’ve got to believe me, Noah.”

Noah wasn’t sure what to believe anymore. Fortunately there were more pressing things to do first - like getting Christine’s tape of evidence to the police, filling out preliminary paperwork for the house insurance and picking up Lady and Tramp from the vet. Then Luke was ready to leave the hospital and Noah ready to care for his hard head. Noah kept himself occupied as much as possible, acting as an ambassador between Luke and all his well wishers. One night he even shooed Lucinda out the door when he thought Luke had enough chatting and sitting up for the day.

In the meanwhile, Lily offered to go to the trial in his place and Noah accepted gratefully her reports. He accepted gratefully Faith’s further presentation of evidence – the photo she took of him and Luke, the puppies, Christine and the man who burnt down their home. He was at Lily’s – his and Luke’s temporary and fall back home - trying to concentrate on catching up on his work at the studio when a voice on the news caught his attention. He kept his head down stubbornly as he tried to visualize his last scene for the movie.

But the Colonel’s voice carried through in that sarcastic way of his. “ _Yes_ , your honor.” He was saying one moment. And another moment there was a crash. Noah looked up then as the reporter voiced over the taped segment, rewound and rewound like some puppet show. “Earlier this afternoon, a witness at the stand of the Mayer-Snyder arson case, Noah Mayer’s father Colonel Winston Mayer was at the stand with further evidence incriminating the neighbors William and Clarissa Wilkinson, when the Colonel suddenly collapsed and was rushed to Memorial Hospital. Colonel Mayer was reported to be on dialysis and in critical condition. His testimony, though cut short, will stand…”

“Noah!” Luke was rushing down the stairs, something Noah really wished he didn’t do. The bandages were mostly off and the wounds were healing nicely, and Luke did have a hard head but still! Now Luke was looking at him something like worry. “Did you hear? Mom just called and…”

“I heard.” Noah looked back up at the TV where the scene was replayed again in slow motion like it was fun or something to show people falling out of the witness stand. Like his father was some Hollywood princess who lost her undies for the night. Flash, flash, the images rewound till Noah felt sick.

“I’m coming with you,” Luke was pulling on a coat and pulling on Noah’s hand.

Noah was grateful for Luke’s reading of the carriage of his shoulders and the clench of his fists. He didn’t need to say anything sometimes and Luke gets it. Luke gets him. Luke even let him drive and said not a word about how Noah was zooming down the streets at ten above the speed limit.

Luke said nothing either when Noah stood outside the Colonel’s room. The doctors were praying for a miracle donor. There weren’t many choices beyond that. The Colonel was fading fast.

“I want to get tested,” Noah said quietly in the rush of the hallway, in the rush of events, where it felt like he and his father were fixed to their spots, changing and unchanging. Luke kissed him soundly, hands fisted in Noah’s lapels.

“You don’t have to, Noah. No one would fault you if you didn’t. But,” Luke paused to smile lovingly at his husband. “But that would be a really amazing thing for you to do, Noah.”

“I don’t need to be amazing. I just can’t watch him like this. Especially, especially _after_ …”

And Luke just held him, stayed by him as he got tested, got the news of the match, got wheeled into surgery.

\--

It was spring. Up and down the streets the trees have sprouted their new coats of green, tender and shy, unfurling in the wind. From the middle of the street, a wisp of black rose higher and higher. And higher still as the smoke permeated the backyard like a giant potpourri, carrying the smell of hickory and honey through the neighborhood like a tease.

Luke carried his plate up to the grill, a twinkle in his eyes as he asked nice as can be. “Can I have seconds, pop? These ribs rival Emma’s chicken! Just don’t tell her I said that.”

Noah followed right behind with his plate, polished and gleaming in the sun. “Yeah, dad, these are really good.” There was something like pride in his eyes as he spoke.

“Uh huh, now I know the real reason why you invite me over.” And the Colonel flipped a long stray piece in Lady and Tramp’s direction, sending them into a frenzy of barks. Tramp gripped one end and Lady gripped the other as they half munched and half played tug of war with their spoil. When Lady got to the middle, got greedy enough to lick all over Tramp’s snout and Tramp made a face, they all laughed. Even Faith who dropped quick as a shot on her knee as she snapped another picture.

Luke and Noah grinned at each other, leaned into each other’s frames and savored the heat in between that they’ve never lost but flamed, to tender, over the years. Some days Noah still couldn’t believe they’ve gotten here, to family, once torn and now complete.

A communal effort had rebuilt their house back up to its full hobbit glory. The hate crime from two years ago was turned on its head and bloomed into love and awareness, life. The Colonel emerged from the transplant surgery grumpy with media attention but more grateful than ever for his son, his _sons_. Noah woke with peace, more peace than he’d felt in his entire life. There was his father on the television, snarl on his face as he called the Wilkinsons “no good pieces of trash” and “wimps of wimps” who dared to pick on “ _my_ son.” There was his father visiting him, wheeled in on a wheelchair by Luke and sitting by his bed saying his thanks and repeating his sorry with his head hung. Noah couldn’t say a word, didn’t know which word to say. Until Luke wheeled the Colonel away from Noah’s bed, away to the door.

“Tell me about my mother,” Noah blurted when the Colonel was framed there in the hallway light, Luke smiling besides him. “Maybe tomorrow? When you visit?” And Noah held his breath like he did when he was a child, at five, at fifteen, craving for approval.

“Sure,” the Colonel replied, eyes ping-ponging between Noah and the floor. “I’ll do my best.”

Noah almost wanted to cry. _He_ was the one who was always trying to do his best, all his life. He laughed instead, a little chuckle of happiness.

And now, bathed in sun and tangled with Luke, he dropped a kiss, slow and full of promises, on his husband. Ethan “ewww”ed in the background. Faith snapped a picture. The Colonel waved a metal tong in their direction. “Hey, knock it off! What do you think you are? Newlyweds?”

Luke and Noah burst out laughing. They alone knew how much like newlyweds they still were. And after the smoke clears, they will head back into their domed abode and explore some more.


End file.
